You can have the greatest idea in the world, a market ready to accept it, and all the connections and luck one could ask for but starting a business will still come down to are you willing to put in the work to make it a success?
Sooner or later (for most much sooner rather than later) you will face multiple challenges with your company. You will face rejection, have partners, customers, employees and investors leave you, and have many moments when you question why you got into this in the first place.
One of the important factors that separates successful entrepreneurs from everyone else is pushing through and keeping going when you face serious challenges. Take, for example, Sean Combs.
Born on the dangerous streets of Harlem and exposed to violence at an early age, the odds were stacked against Sean Combs, a.k.a. Diddy, from day one. Nobody believed he would amount to much, let alone go on to become one of the most successful and well-known musicians, producers and entrepreneurs of our time.
How did Combs achieve his success? Through a lot of hard work!
According to Combs:
“I’m trying to be somebody. I didn’t come into this business saying, I’m gonna look like the biggest black music man; I was like, I’m gonna be the biggest. I’m gonna go down in history as being one of the best music men and businessmen in entertainment.
I admire Andre Harrell and Berry Gordy the most, the people who came up from the black community. But the people that I’m going to be greater than are Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Clive Davis.
I’ve never been surprised about what happened to me. I’ve put in hard work to get to this point. It’s like when you become a lawyer – if you’re bustin’ your ass, you’re not surprised when you get your degree.
I came in to win, you know. This is why I stay up late while other people are sleeping; this is why I don’t go out to the Hamptons.”
The next time you are faced with a significant problem, just think about the fact that every entrepreneur who has made it was once in your position. The reason why they got to their level of success is that they kept going, faced the problem head on, and continued building.
How much do you want to succeed?
Evan Carmichael
Matthew Toren is an Award Winning Author, Serial Entrepreneur, and Investor. He Co-Founded YoungEntrepreneur.com along with his brother Adam. Matthew is co-author of the newly released book:Small Business, Big Vision: “Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right” and also co-author of Kidpreneurs.
I admir Diddy so much, even though he cant decide what name to go by lol. But that’s not important he’s an inspiration to me!
[...] For those who like to feel that they have a practical direction in life, I offer a suggestion made to me, a fellow pie-in-the-sky (with results! [I use an exclamation mark as my results surprised even myself ]) idealist, by my practical friend. If nothing else, his suggestion gives you something to implement while you think about what you like to think about. The Laws of Action and Attraction are one, just different sides to the same coin. [...]
I needed to read this! Been working my ass off day in and day out trying to make things happen.
All in due time.
I’ve been there, I have thrown the butt and said to myself biodegradable what the heck, it’s much easier than putting it in the ash tray. The next step is the sweet wrapper,the cigarette packet, the burger wrapper, I progressed to tax evasion instead of avoidance, smuggle instead of import, steal instead of buy,drive drunk instead of taxi.